Well before the hearings and votes, the immediate struggle will be to define both the nominee and the President (in light of his selection).  In several prior posts, we have summarized Sonia Sotomayor’s principal opinions.  Here, I discuss the lines of attack that likely will be directed at her if she is nominated by the President this morning.

The attacks are inevitable and tremendously regrettable, just as they were for Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.  A cottage industry – literally an industry, given the sums of money raised and spent – now exists in which the far left and right either brutalize or lionize the President’s nominees.  Because the absence of controversy means bankruptcy, it has to be invented by both sides, whatever the cost to the nominee personally and to the integrity of the judiciary nationally.

Sad but undoubtedly true. The next few months will be full of invented controversy. Hey, wait a minute, that's what the last few months have been full of, too! Somebody's clearly full of something, that's for sure...

If you're truly interested in her qualifications, by the way, they've reviewed key cases in earlier posts.

Coming from a housing project in the Bronx, Sotomayor ended up graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton. She also was a co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate. Sotomayor then went to Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) said on Fox News this morning that of all the nominees, Sotomayor “brings the most in terms of judicial experience — in terms of serving on a federal court — in 100 years.”

The nominee-bashing is inevitable, but can we at least pick something remotely related to the realm of the possible? Call her too liberal, which is subjective and relative and at least debatable - but claiming she's less than brilliant is just plain dumb.

By the way, am I the only one who finds this line of attack to be just the tiniest bit hypocritical, coming from the anti-elite conservative movement? You're opposing her because you think she's not in the country's intellectual elite? But surely intelligence is overrated. Isn't that the whole point of your anti-elite crusade? *rolls eyes*

Watch-Paper Prints

The linked page has a boatload of images, some very interesting. And just the idea of a watch-paper print is interesting. At least to me...

About now, high-school seniors everywhere slip into a glorious sort of limbo. Waiting out the final weeks of the school year, they begin rightfully to revel in the shared thrill of moving on. It is no different in south-central Georgia’s Montgomery County, made up of a few small towns set between fields of wire grass and sweet onion. The music is turned up. Homework languishes. The future looms large. But for the 54 students in the class of 2009 at Montgomery County High School, so, too, does the past. On May 1 — a balmy Friday evening — the white students held their senior prom. And the following night — a balmy Saturday — the black students had theirs.

Amazing, isn't it? How dumb is this? "You can force us to send our kids to the same school, but you can't make us send our kids to the same dance!" Made-up quote, don't bother looking for it in the article. Still, it sounds about right...

File this one under “probably fake but still funny” and “guys have a lot of free time on their hands”. According to web site swamplot.com, one restroom patron at the Houston Hobby airport noticed a sticker on the urinal stating “Automatic infrared flush sensors also provide video monitoring for security purposes”

*giggling*

A friend of mine came across this while looking up information about the late, great Edward Gorey. Apparently an early effort, and very silly, but it's fun to know that achieving greatness does not mean an author is immune to silliness. It makes one feel better, rather. It is extraordinary how many possible deflowering situations there are, including By Marimba Player, At Seance, On Cross-Country Bus, In Moroccan Palace, and many, many more.

Deflowered By Marimba Player?!? ROTFL

Fantastic Headdresses

Some seriously crazy stuff there...

AS SOON as President Bush decided to use waterboarding and other extreme measures in prisoner interrogations, he made it far more difficult to bring terrorism detainees to justice, since courts disallow evidence based on coercion. Bush's solution was the anything-goes, kangaroo-court military tribunals that Barack Obama rightly and repeatedly criticized during the campaign. Now President Obama has made the mistake of resorting to tribunals himself.

Obama was right to call the Bush tribunals a mistake. It's equally right to call the Obama tribunals a mistake. Being unable to convict somebody under the rule of law does not mean you get to invent new laws.

Mr President: We've got these things called courts. You may have heard of them. Try them out, they work reasonably well...

QUESTION: If the United States -- if the United States thinks that these people should be held, why shouldn't they be held in the United States? Why shouldn't the U.S. take those risks, the attendant risk of holding them, since it's the one that says they should be held?

REID: I think there's a general feeling, as I've already said, that the American people, and certainly the Senate, overwhelmingly doesn't want terrorists to be released in the United States. And I think we're going to stick with that.

QUESTION: What about in imprisoned in the United States?

REID: If you're...

(CROSSTALK)

REID: If people are -- if terrorists are released in the United States, part of what we don't want is them be put in prisons in the United States. We don't want them around the United States."

Um, Harry? What the f$ck are you talking about?!? If we move somebody to a real prison (be it civilian or military), we're not "releasing" them. Duh.

And in what bizarro universe is it impossible to hold a terrorist in maximum security prisons?

Even better, Sen Graham (R- SC) claims that the US Navy (!!!) brig in SC, where they TRAIN sailors on detaining terrorists, can't hold them either. WTF?!?

Seriously, icing on the cake time - as the first question in the above quote asks, where does the US get off asking other countries to hold people that we say are too dangerous to be kept in our most secure prisons?!?

Unbe-fucking-lievable.

LT. COL. FEHRENBACH.... Rachel Maddow's introduction of the segment on Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Fehrenbach last night told a rather remarkable story.

"[Fehrenbach is] an F-15 fighter pilot, 18-year veteran of the United States Air Force," Rachel explained. "On Sept. 11, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach was picked to be part of the initial alert crew immediately after the 9/11 attacks. The following years, in 2002, he deployed to Kuwait, where he flew combat missions over Afghanistan, attacking Taliban and al Qaeda targets. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach deployed there, flying combat missions in support of mission Iraqi Freedom.

"Over the span of his career, he has flown 88 combat missions, including missions that were the longest mission sorties in the history of his squadron. He's logged more than 2,000 flying hours, nearly 1,500 fighting hours, 400 combat hours. Lt. Col. Fehrenbach is also highly decorated -- he's received nine air medals, including one for heroism. After 18 years of active duty in the Air Force, this experienced, decorated fighter pilot says he is ready and willing to deploy again. He's ready to do what his country and the United States Air Force ask of him."

Except, Fehrenbach will no longer able to serve, because the Air Force is kicking him out of the military because he's gay. This genuine American war hero, who's put his life on the line over and over again, and who the U.S. government has invested $25 million in training, is two years from retirement. Instead of thanking him for his extraordinary service, the country he's served with honor and distinction is firing him for his sexual orientation.

Just once, I wanted to hear someone explain why the United States is stronger, safer, and more secure with Lt. Col. Fehrenbach out of the military.

This is beyond idiotic...